SAVE THE CHILDREN LAUNCHES EVERY ONE CAMPAIGN

SANA'A, Oct. 05 (Saba)- Save the Children is to launch Monday EVERY
ONE Campaign to reduce and child mortality worldwide to ensure that
Millennium Development Goal 4 - a two-thirds reduction in under-five
mortality - is achieved on target by 2015, by arranging two main
events for one day in Aden and Sana'a.

In a press release, Save the Children said that the campaign aims to
save the lives of 500,000 children over the next five years and
create lasting benefits for many generations to come.

"Yemen is today joining nearly 40 other countries around the world
to raise the profile of this important issue", said the organization.

"Save the Children is committed to launching this campaign in
partnership with Children Parliament members with participation of
Yemeni and refugee children students who will play an important role
in raising awareness of their peers and communities on the rights of
Every One child to survival".

Save the Children will launch at the Democracy School the campaign
with a session for Children Parliament members to advocate for the
child right to be saved and encourage the government to move forward
for children's benefit.

Then, there is an afternoon field visits arranged by children from
four communities in two governorates in Sana'a and Aden in which
children wearing dates around their neck as a symbol that infants
are the seed of their communities so they have to be protected from
disease and malnutrition.

In Yemen, 73 out of every 1000 children born will die before they
reach 5 years of age. Although there has been a significant
improvement in child mortality since the MDGs were launched in 1990,
more work needs to be done to reach the MDG 4.

Many children in Yemen are born at home, without a trained person
being present. The risk of something going wrong during birth is
high and many children die during or shortly after birth.

Another important fact is that only 12% of children in Yemen are
exclusively breastfed until they are 6 months of age. This
contributes to high level of malnutrition in young children -almost
one in every two children is underweight. This makes them more
likely to get diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, which are
among the major causes of child death in Yemen.

Andrew Moore, the Country Director of Save the Children stated "Too
many children - nearly 9 million annually under the age of five -
die needlessly as a result of totally treatable or preventable
diseases. It is Every Ones responsibility to prevent these deaths
and Save the Children will work with the children, government and
communities of Yemen to reduce the number of preventable under 5
deaths.

Save the Children fights for children's rights, influences public
opinion and supports children at risk for a better world in which
all children's rights are respected.

YA